Employees drive into the an IBM entrance off Maple Street in Essex Junction in May. Gov. Peter Shumlin released a statement Wednesday morning responding to news of nationwide layoffs by IBM. / Free Press file

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and Lynn Monty

Five Corners Discount Beverage store clerk Colby Benway checks out a customer, Jeff Bushey of Essex. Benway said IBMers are the bulk of the business' clientele and that customers have been talking about IBM layoff rumors for quiet some time. / LYNN MONTY/FREE PRESS

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Only IBM knew the scale of layoffs Wednesday in Essex, and the company, true to form, was keeping quiet.

IBM’s policy is to withhold numbers for employment and for job cuts, and the layoffs in Essex, which were part of nationwide cuts, did not immediately trigger either federal or state reporting requirements. The federal threshold is 500 or more workers in a 30-day period; the state requires notice within 24 hours if 25 or more workers are let go.

Vermont Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan said her department is ready to work with IBM employees who lost their jobs to ensure they can receive unemployment benefits and to help them find positions elsewhere.

“We were told that layoff notices would occur today,” Noonan said Wednesday. “We were not given a number. If there is any good news in this, it is that we were told this is not a Vermont-specific event and that IBM said it remains fully committed to its Vermont operation. That is welcome news.”

The nationwide “resource action,” as IBM calls the job cuts, had been rumored for more than a month, following a worse-than-expected earnings report in April.

Gov. Peter Shumlin was among the first governors nationwide to confirm publicly IBM’s layoffs Wednesday morning.

“We heard from IBM today that sites around the United States, including the Essex facility, will be notified of a workforce reorganization that will result in layoffs,” Shumlin said in a statement.

Earl Mungeon of Alliance@IBM CWA Local 1701 told the Burlington Free Press that workers were let go on his overnight shift in Essex. He was uncertain how many.

Alliance, based in Binghamton, N.Y., describes itself as an IBM employee organization under the Communications Workers of America union.

Lee Conrad, national coordinator of Alliance@IBM, said he was “swamped” Wednesday with information coming in from across the country from IBM workers who had been laid off.

“Every division has been hit,” Conrad said. “We’re getting resource action packages, which list the number of people fired only by division, not by location.”

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Conrad said IBM’s Essex facility is part of the systems technology group, together with facilities in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Rochester, Minn.; and Austin, Texas. He said the resource action packages, which each laid-off employee receives, offer a reason for the job cuts, then list the number of people selected for layoffs by job title and age.

“IBM once again seems to be keeping all these job cuts secret,” Conrad said. “We’re asking the governors for states such as Vermont to demand IBM be public on these job-cut numbers. It is unconscionable that IBM should be allowed to keep these numbers secret.”

Conrad said late Wednesday it would take two or three days to receive all the resource action packages from across the country and total the number of layoffs. He said Alliance estimates it receives about 80 percent of the packages that are sent to laid-off employees.

Late Wednesday afternoon, businesses were anticipating the impact.. Rocky’s N.Y. Pizza has served slices to IBM workers for more than a decade. Manager Brandon Longe said the pizza parlor has many regulars from IBM who take their lunch breaks there almost every day.

“It’s as simple as: They lose their job, they don’t eat here, we lose money. That’s how it works,” Longe said. “A few have stopped in to tell me they made it. I still don’t know about a few others. I’m worried about them.”

IBM spokesman Jeff Couture issued a short statement concerning the nationwide layoffs, saying, “Change is constant in the technology industry, and transformation is an essential feature of our business model. Consequently, some level of workforce remix is a constant requirement for our business. Given the competitive nature of our industry, we do not publicly discuss the details of staffing plans.”

IBM employs slightly more than 4,000 people at its plants in Chittenden County.

Labor Commissioner Noonan said that with Vermont’s third-lowest-in-the-country unemployment rate, and with many companies looking for technically skilled workers, she’s hopeful the IBM workers will find new jobs.

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In his statement, Shumlin added: “I am always concerned when we learn that Vermonters face job losses. Our hearts go out to the affected workers and their families, and I pledge my administration’s resources to help their transition. The Vermont Department of Labor has mobilized its rapid response team and is prepared to assist all laid-off workers.

“Vermont’s partnership with IBM is very important, but our state is not immune to the forces that are driving this decision in the larger organization,” the governor continued. “IBM has assured us that it remains committed to Vermont. It will continue to invest in new and transformational opportunities that will lead to higher value for the company and its workers here.

“Job losses are always hard, but it is important to remember that Vermont currently has the third-lowest unemployment rate in the country. Many employers in Vermont are ready to hire those with the skills and education of these workers. We will work hard to maximize the Vermont job opportunities for those who face these layoffs.”

Don Scotti, 56, of Essex was an engineer at IBM from 1979 until he was laid off in 2003. Scotti said he was given a month to look around within IBM for another position before being asked to pack up and leave.

“Today I think they are told and escorted right out of the building the same day, boxes in hand,” Scotti said. “It’s sad, really.”

Scotti did not find another position at IBM. Instead he taught math locally, and his wife, who had been a stay-at-home mom, returned to a medical career at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

“After the layoff there was no way to raise our family on one income and we wanted to stay and raise our kids here, so we had to make some pretty big changes,” Scotti said. “Back then we all thought we would end our 30-year careers with IBM. That didn’t happen.”

Five Corners Discount Beverage clerk Colby Benway said IBMers make up the bulk of the store’s clientele.

“They come here before and after their shift and on break,” Benway said. “The buzz had been, for a while now, that layoffs were coming. People have definitely been talking about it in here and were worried about it. It’s been really quiet in here today.”

Essex resident Ian Pulrang was shopping in Five Corners. He said the layoffs were business as usual for IBM. “I’ve seen them lay off, hire them back and lay them off again,” he said. “It’s probably got something to do with a contract they lost or some business transaction gone wrong. It’s all at the expense of the good people who live here.”